{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/208/2080013.htm","path":"chr/ecf/208/2080013.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/208/2080013.htm","text":"VII.\u2014The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus.\nCappadocia, it has been seen, had been divided into two provinces, and of one of these Tyana had been constituted the chief town. Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, now contended that an ecclesiastical partition should follow the civil, and that Tyana should enjoy parallel metropolitan privileges to those of C\u00e6sarea. To this claim Basil determined to offer an uncompromising resistance, and summoned Gregory of Nazianzus to his side. Gregory replied in friendly and complimentary terms, 187 and pointed out that Basil\u2019s friendship for Eustathius of Sebaste was a cause of suspicion in the Church. At the same time he placed himself at the archbishop\u2019s disposal. The friends started together with a train of slaves and mules to collect the produce of the monastery of St. Orestes, in Cappadocia Secunda, which was the property of the see of C\u00e6sarea. Anthimus blocked the defiles with his retainers and in the vicinity of Sasima 188 there was an unseemly struggle between the domestics of the two prelates. 189 The friends proceeded to Nazianzus, and there, with imperious inconsiderateness, Basil insisted upon nominating Gregory to one of the bishoprics which he was founding in order to strengthen his position against Anthimus. 190 For Gregory, the brother, Nyssa was selected, a town on the Halys, about a hundred miles distant from C\u00e6sarea, so obscure that Eusebius of Samosata remonstrated with Basil on the unreasonableness of forcing such a man to undertake the episcopate of such a place. 191 For Gregory, the friend, a similar fate was ordered. The spot chosen was Sasima, a townlet commanding the scene of the recent fray. 192 It was an insignificant place at the bifurcation of the road leading northwards from Tyana to Doara and diverging westward to Nazianzus. 193 p. xxvi Gregory speaks of it with contempt, and almost with disgust, 194 and never seems to have forgiven his old friend for forcing him to accept the responsibility of the episcopate, and in such a place. 195 Gregory resigned the distasteful post, 196 and with very bitter feelings. The utmost that can be said for Basil is that just possibly he was consulting for the interest of the Church, and meaning to honour his friend, by placing Gregory in an outpost of peril and difficulty. In the kingdom of heaven the place of trial is the place of trust. 197 But, unfortunately for the reputation of the archbishop, the war in this case was hardly the Holy War of truth against error and of right against wrong. It was a rivalry between official and official, and it seemed hard to sacrifice Gregory to a dispute between the claims of the metropolitans of Tyana and C\u00e6sarea. 198\nGregory the elder joined in persuading his son. Basil had his way. He won a convenient suffragan for the moment. But he lost his friend. The sore was never healed, and even in the great funeral oration in which Basil\u2019s virtues and abilities are extolled, Gregory traces the main trouble of his chequered career to Basil\u2019s unkindness, and owns to feeling the smart still, though the hand that inflicted the wound was cold. 199\np. xxvii With Anthimus peace was ultimately established. Basil vehemently desired it. 200 Eusebius of Samosata again intervened. 201 Nazianzus remained for a time subject to C\u00e6sarea, but was eventually recognized as subject to the Metropolitan of Tyana. 202\nThe relations, however, between the two metropolitans remained for some time strained. When in Armenia in 372, Basil arranged some differences between the bishops of that district, and dissipated a cloud of calumny hanging over Cyril, an Armenian bishop. 203 He also acceded to a request on the part of the Church of Satala that he would nominate a bishop for that see, and accordingly appointed P\u0153menius, a relation of his own. 204 Later on a certain Faustus, on the strength of a recommendation from a pope with whom he was residing, applied to Basil for consecration to the see, hitherto occupied by Cyril. With this request Basil declined to comply, and required as a necessary preliminary the authorisation of the Armenian bishops, specially of Theodotus of Nicopolis. Faustus then betook himself to Anthimus, and succeeded in obtaining uncanonical consecration from him. This was naturally a serious cause of disagreement. 205 However, by 375, a better feeling seems to have existed between the rivals. Basil is able at that date to speak of Anthimus as in complete agreement with him. 206\ncf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xxiii. 4.\nxxv:189\nGreg. Naz., Or. xliii. 58, and Ep. xlviii. Bas., Epp. lxxiv., lxxv., lxxvi.\nxxv:190\nIt has been debated whether the odium theologicum was here mixed up with the odium ecclesiasticum. Gregory (Orat. xliii. 58) represents Anthimus as defending his seizure of the metropolitan revenues on the ground that it was wrong \u03b4\u03b1\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2, to pay tribute to men of evil opinions, and LeClerc (Bibl. Univer. xviii. p. 60) has condemned Anthimus as an Arian. He was undoubtedly \u0391\u03c1\u03ae& 187\u00b7\u03bf\u03c2 (Greg. Naz., Ep. xlviii.), a devotee of Ares, as he shewed in the skirmish by Sasima; but there is no reason to suppose him to have been \u0391\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2, or Arian. He probably looked askance at the orthodoxy of Basil. Basil would never have called him \u1f41\u03bc\u03cc\u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2 (Ep. ccx. 5) if he had been unsound on the incarnation. cf. Baronius, Act. Sanc. Maj. ii. p. 394.\nxxv:191\nEp. xcviii., but see note, p. 182, on the doubt as to this allusion.\nxxv:192\nGreg. Naz., with grim humour, objects to be sent to Sasima to fight for Basil\u2019s supply of sucking pigs and poultry from St. Orestes. Ep. xlviii.\nxxv:193\n\u201cNyssa was more clearly than either Sasima or Doara a part of Cappadocia Secunda; it always retained its ecclesiastical dependence on C\u00e6sarea, but politically it must have been subject to Tyana from 372 to 536, and afterwards to Mokissos. All three were apparently places to which Basil consecrated bishops during his contest with Anthimus and the civil power. His bishop of Nyssa, his own brother Gregory, was ejected by the dominant Arians, but the eminence and vigour of Gregory secured his reinstatement and triumphant return. Basil\u2019s appointment was thus successful, and the connexion always continued. His appointment at Sasima was unsuccessful. Gregory of Nazianzus would not maintain the contest, and Sasima passed under the metropolitan of Tyana. At Doara, in like fashion, Basil\u2019s nominee was expelled, and apparently never reinstated. Ep. ccxxxix. Greg. Naz. Or. xiii.\u201d Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of A.M. 305.\nxxvi:194\n\u03a3\u03c4\u03b1\u03b8\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c3\u03c4\u1f76\u03bd \u1f10\u03bd \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u1fc3 \u03bb\u03b5\u03c9\u03c6\u03cc\u03c1\u1ff3\n\u03a4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u039a\u03b1\u03c0\u03c0\u03b1\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f43\u03c2 \u03c3\u03c7\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03c4\u1fbd \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c3\u1f74\u03bd \u1f41\u03b4\u03cc\u03bd.\n\u1fce\u0391\u03bd\u03c5\u03b4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2, \u1f04\u03c7\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u1fbd \u1f45\u03bb\u03c9\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2,\n\u0394\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b5\u03c5\u03ba\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03bd\u1f78\u03bd \u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03cd\u03b4\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd,\n\u039a\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c8\u03cc\u03c6\u03bf\u03b9, \u03c3\u1f7a\u03bd \u1f05\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9,\n\u0398\u03c1\u1fc6\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9, \u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03bc\u03bf\u1f76, \u03c0\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03c1\u03b5\u03c2, \u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03ad\u03b2\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9, \u03c0\u03ad\u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u00b7\n\u039b\u03b1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03b4\u1fbd \u1f45\u03c3\u03bf\u03b9 \u03be\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c0\u03bb\u03b1\u03bd\u03ce\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9,\n\u0391\u1f55\u03c4\u03b7 \u03a3\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1.\n[N.B.\u2014The last line marks the quantity.]\n\u201cA post town on the king\u2019s high road,\nWhere three ways meet, is my abode;\nNo brooklet, not a blade of grass,\nDust, din, all day; the creak of wheels;\nGroans, yells, the exciseman at one\u2019s heels\nWith screw and chain; the population\nA shifting horde from every nation.\nA viler spot you long may search,\nThan this Sasima, now my church!\u201d\nxxvi:195\nIt is curious that a place which had so important a connexion with Gregory the divine should have passed so completely into oblivion. From it he derived his episcopal rank. His consecration to Sasima was the main ground of the objection of his opponents at Constantinople in 381 to his occupying the see of the imperial city. He was bishop of Sasima, and, by the fifteenth Canon of Nic\u00e6a, could not be transferred to Constantinople. He never was bishop of Nazianzus, though he did administer that diocese before the appointment of Eulalius in 383. But while the name \u201cGregory of Nazianzus\u201d has obscured the very existence of his father, who was really Gregory of Nazianzus, and is known even to the typical schoolboy, Gregory has never been described as \u201cGregory of Sasima.\u201d \u201cThe great plain which extends from Sasima nearly to Soandos is full of underground houses and churches, which are said to be of immense extent. The inhabitants are described by Leo Diaconus (p. 35) as having been originally named Troglodytes.\u2026Every house in Hassa Keni has an underground story cut out of the rock; long narrow passages connect the underground rooms belonging to each house, and also run from house to house. A big solid disc of stone stands in a niche outside each underground house door, ready to be pulled in front of the door on any alarm.\u2026Sasima was on the road between Nazianzus and Tyana. The distances point certainly to Hassa Keni.\u2026An absolutely unhistorical legend about St. Makrina is related at Hassa Keni. Recently a good-sized church has been built in the village, evidently on the site of an ancient church; it is dedicated to St. Makrina, who, as the village priest relates, fled hither from Kaisari to escape marriage, and to dedicate herself to a saintly life. The underground cell in which she lived is below the church.\u201d Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, pp. 293, 294. Paul Lucas identified Sasima with Inschesu.\nxxvi:196 xxvi:197\ncf. De Joinville\u2019s happy illustration of this in Histoire du roi Saint Louis, p. 18. Ed. 1617. The King of France would shew more confidence in the captain whom he might choose to defend La Rochelle, close to the English pale, than in the keeper of Monthl\u00e9ry, in the heart of the realm.\nxxvi:198\nAt the same time it is disappointing to find Gregory mixing up with expressions of reluctance to assume awful responsibilities, objections on the score of the disagreeable position of Sasima. Perhaps something of the sentiments of Basil on this occasion may be inferred from what he says in Letter cii. on the postponement of private to public considerations in the case of the appointment of P\u0153menius to Satala.\nxxvi:199\nOr. xliii. cf. Newman, The Church of the Fathers, p. 142, where the breach is impartially commented on: \u201cAn ascetic, like Gregory, ought not to have complained of the country as deficient in beauty and interest, even though he might be allowed to feel the responsibility of a situation which made him a neighbor of Anthimus. Yet such was his infirmity; and he repelled the accusations of his mind against himself by charging Basil with unkindness in placing him at Sasima. On the other hand, it is possible that Basil, in his eagerness for the settlement of his exarchate, too little consulted the character and taste of Gregory; and, above all, the feelings of duty which bound him to Nazianzus.\u2026Henceforth no letters, which are preserved, passed between the two friends; nor are any acts of intercourse discoverable in their history. Anthimus appointed a rival bishop to Sasima; and Gregory, refusing to contest the see with him, returned to Nazianzus. Basil laboured by himself. Gregory retained his feelings of Basil\u2019s unkindness even after his death.\u2026This lamentable occurrence took place eight or nine years before Basil\u2019s death; he had, before and after it, many trials, many sorrows; but this probably was the greatest of all.\u201d The statement that no letters which are preserved passed between the two friends henceforth will have to be modified, if we suppose Letter clxix. to be addressed to Gregory the Divine. But Professor Ramsay\u2019s arguments (Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. 293) in favour of Gregory of Nazianzus the elder seem irresistible.\nOn Letter clxix. he writes: \u201cFor topographical purposes it is necessary to discover who was the Gregory into whose diocese Glycerius fled. Tillemont considers that either Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory of Nazianzus is meant. But the tone of the letter is not what we might expect if Basil were writing to either of them. It is not conceived in the spirit of authority in which Basil wrote to his brother or to his friend. It appears to me to show a certain deference which, considering the resolute, imperious, and uncompromising character of Basil (seen especially in his behaviour to Gregory Nazianzen in the matter of the bishopric of Sasima), I can explain only on the supposition that he is writing to the aged and venerable Gregory, bishop of Nazianzos. Then the whole situation is clear. Venasa was in the district of Malakopaia, or Suvermez, towards the limits of the diocese of C\u00e6sareia. The adjoining bishopric was that of Nazianzos. Venasa being so far from C\u00e6sareia was administered by one of the fifty chorepiscopi whom Basil had under him (Tillemont, Mem. p. servir, etc., ix. p. 120), and the authority of Basil was appealed to only in the final resort. Glycerius, when Basil decided against him, naturally fled over the border into the diocese of Nazianzos.\u201d (There is, however, not much reverence in Letter clxxi.)\n\u201cComment l\u2019homme qui avait tant souffert de l\u2019injustice des autres, put-il \u00eatre injuste envers son meilleur ami? L\u2019amiti\u00e9 est de tous les pays. Partout, on voit des hommes qui semblent n\u00e9s l\u2019un pour l\u2019autre, se rapprocher par une estime mutuelle, par la conformit\u00e9 de leurs gouts et de leurs caract\u00e8res partager les peines et les joies de la vie, et donner le spectacle du plus beau sentiment que nous avons re\u00e7u de la divinit\u00e9. Mais la Gr\u00e8ce avait singuli\u00e8rement ennobli ce sentiment dej\u00e0 si pur et si saint, en lui donnant pour but l\u2019amour de la patrie. Les amis, destines a se servir l\u2019un \u00e0 l\u2019autre de mod\u00e8le et de soutien, s\u2019aiment moins pour eux-m\u00eames, que pour rivaliser de vertu, se d\u00e9vouer ensemble, s\u2019immoler s\u2019il le faut, au bien public.\u2026C\u2019est cette amiti\u00e9 de d\u00e9vouement et de sacrifice, qu\u2019au milieu de la mollesse du IVme si\u00e8cle, Basil con\u00e7oit pour Gr\u00e9goire de Nazianze. Form\u00e9e dans les \u00e9coles, entretenne par l\u2019amour des lettres, elle avait pour but unique, non plus la patrie, mais Dieu. L\u2019amiti\u00e9 de Gr\u00e9goire et plus tendre et plus humaine.\u2026Il a vou\u00e9 sa vie \u00e0 son ami, mais il en attend la m\u00eame condescendance, le m\u00eame denouement \u00e0 ses propres d\u00e9sirs. Basile au contraire, semble prendre \u00e0 la lettre ce qu\u2019il a lu dans Plutarque et dans X\u00e9nophon de l\u2019amiti\u00e9 antique.\u201d E. Fialon, Et. Hist. In other words, Gregory\u2019s idea of friendship was to sacrifice one\u2019s self: Basil\u2019s to sacrifice one\u2019s friend. This is an interesting vindication of Basil, but the cause of God was hardly identical with the humiliation of Anthimus.\nxxvii:200 xxvii:201 xxvii:202 xxvii:203 xxvii:204 xxvii:205 xxvii:206","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VIII: Prolegomena.: The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus.","type":"page"}